A project more than two years in the making to map and document all 163 miles of the Etowah River has been completed. The Coosa River Basin Initiative (CRBI) celebrated the completion this month.

In an ongoing effort to create an Etowah River water trail, on Oct. 1 CRBI launched its Etowah River Water Trail website (www.etowahwatertrail.org),a comprehensive guide to the Etowah River from the river’s beginning along the Appalachian Trail in Lumpkin County to its confluence with the Oostanaula River in Rome.

The Etowah Water Trail website serves as a guide for river users, providing information about public access points, river features and mileage, historic sites and more. An interactive map allows site visitors to learn about points of interest along the river. Printable maps and guides can also be downloaded from the site. Funding for the project was provided by the Lyndhurst Foundation in Chattanooga.

The sun was shinning on Pickens County’s Old Jail last Saturday. Ruth Wall, President of the Marble Valley Historical Society, Inc., opened the doors; let in the sweet spring air and began the 2012 season.

The MVHS, Inc. assumed responsibility for The Old Jail when it was evacuated in 1982. They raised money for rehabilitation and restoration of the facility and added a Pickens County Museum and Law Enforcement Exhibit. Among the displays are the 1906 construction plan and contract.

Tours are a reasonable $3. The Marble Valley Historical Society members hold open the facility to the public on weekends from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. from April to October.

Botanists tend to be rather easy-going people, usually. They enjoy being outdoors on field trips and seeing interesting plants…and some botanists are known for an occasional and perhaps unusual sense of humor. My own long-suffering students over the years have been subjected, by me, to a wide variety of brilliant anecdotes and excellent puns. (Well, that’s the way I think about them.) One of my little stories involves ferns: whenever we come up to a patch of them growing in the woods, I usually end up remarking that we must be in “Fern land” and that maybe we are near Helsinki. (I’ve got plenty more similarly excellent jokes, but maybe I’ll share them with you at a later time.)

But seriously folks, ferns represent an extremely ancient plant lineage, easily dating back to the early “Carboniferous” period, some 345 million years ago, and well before the first dinosaurs. They and their relatives were instrumental in the development of vast deposits of coal as they died and decayed, and their legacy as a source of fossil fuels makes them extremely important, at least as far as human economy goes. And, from these deposits fossilized ferns are commonly encountered. Modern ferns are indeed vascular plants, meaning that their roots, stems and leaves contain various tissues that transport water and dissolved substances. Ferns do not produce flowers, however, nor do they produce seeds in the way that flowering plants do. Rather, ferns and their relatives reproduce by spreading tiny spores. The spores commonly originate in specialized structures called sporangia on the lower (bottom) sides of the fronds. Depending on the particular kind of fern, these sporangia will be arranged in a rather characteristic pattern, often as small, roughened dots …each one is called a “sorus” and the plural is “sori”… on the divisions of the frond.

“Maidenhair fern,” Adiantum pedatum, though, is somewhat unusual in having its sporangia not consigned to sori as in many other ferns…but rather at the margins of the frond’s ultimate divisions where hidden away and protected by a thin overlapping margin of leaf tissue.

This is a common fern species in deciduous forests all over the eastern United States, from New England to northern Florida, and as far west as Oklahoma. In the Southeast you will find Maidenhair ferns in the piedmont and mountain counties, generally away from the coast. It likes to grow in damp shady places, but it can be found in open sites. The plants come up from a horizontal stem that clings to the soil or to rocks and each frond has a smooth, shiny, nearly black stalk. The frond is prominently divided into many divisions and the effect is something like a fan. The divisions of the frond are quite delicate, affording a lovely shimmering effect in the slightest breezes, such as those near waterfalls.

So there we are. “Sori” for all the fern jokes.

John Nelson is the curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina in the Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia S.C. 29208. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information visit www. herbarium.org or call 803-777-8196.

J. H. Dilbeck-Atlanta Journal / Photo In this 1949 photograph, Pickens County Sheriff Howard Cagle (right) stands with H.V. Shelton (left) and H.V. Brinkman by the well at Blaine where Earl Holbert’s body was recovered.

Just 23 years old at his death, Grady Earl Holbert stood five feet, nine inches tall and weighed about 145 pounds. His eyes were blue, his hair brown. A veteran, Holbert served as a tank soldier in the European theater of World War II. He was just a teenager then. Four years later, Holbert drove a taxi, his own, based from Jasper under the sign, Veteran Taxi. He went missing the night of Tuesday, February 22, 1949.

The early arrival of spring-like weather in the southeast will have Sweet Shrub in bloom and providing a great scent to the woods of North Georgia. (Photo by Linda Lee)

By John Nelson

Not many things could be finer, here in Carolina, or anywhere in the southeast, as far as wonderful fragrance than Sweet Shrub (Calycanthus floridus). We are having a rather early spring it seems, and this is a plant that is already beginning to unfold its marvelous flowers which can give off an amazingly sweet fragrance. A stand of these plans also known as Carolina allspice in your garden on a warm spring evening is something to invite your friends over for. For dessert.

This is a shrub that is native to the Southeast and is fairly common in many places from northern Virginia down through lower Mississippi.

You wouldn’t know it from Sandra Temple’s smile and positive attitude, but her life has been ripe with heartache and tragedy. Temple, who goes by Diamond while DJing at Jasper’s WIVL 88.3, had her foot amputated following a car accident in the late 90s and struggled for years with an emotionally and ultimately physically abusive husband. Temple says she was so traumatized by the abuse that she “checked out of life” for six years, becoming nearly mute, suffering severe memory loss and leaving care of her two daughters to her mother. But in the last year Temple says she’s been given another chance at living with her new position as morning DJ at the local station. She’s lost over 130 pounds in three years and now has a second job working with a drug and alcohol counselor for children. From suffering in silence to speaking out day after day, Temple is spinning a new life for herself one album at a time.

How did you find yourself in Pickens?

I was born in Texas and in 1997 I had a car accident. My right foot was amputated and reattached and I couldn’t go back to the place where I was living so they had to fly me here to my mother’s so she could take care of me. My daughters were much younger then. One was a teenager and one was two.

That’s incredible. Is your foot fully functional now?

It’s my right foot. That’s my main disability for me because here at the station we’re supposed to be disabled. We volunteer to work here. It doesn’t look the same and I don’t have all movement, but I go to the gym here and workout and walk. Both my daughters were in the car too, and taken to the hospital. My youngest still has a scar.

What did you do for work before your accident?

I was in daycare. I had watched kids my whole life. When I moved here I put in a 24-hour ad. I watched kids here in my home in my wheelchair before I became a substitute teacher. But my second disability is from the abuse of my second husband, who after our children became a crack addict. They called what I had the fugue.

According to figures recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Pickens County is the 81st fastest growing county in the nation, with Georgia counties appearing on the bureau’s top 100 list more than any other state.

Each year the bureau releases population estimates based on numbers from the most recent census survey. Working from census figures (in this case numbers from the 2000 Census) the bureau updates numbers, using “administrative” information such as migration estimates, utility connections, vehicle registrations and birth and death records, among other sources of information.
According to the Census Bureau, Pickens County had a population of 22,983 in 2000. The bureau now estimates the county has grown 36 percent since 2000 and currently has a population of 31,264.
“This estimate is less than what we think the actual numbers are,” said Pickens County Information Officer Norman Pope, who believes Pickens County is chronically undercounted.
“We have a lot of second homeowners in this county,” Pope said, referring to residents who own mountain homes in gated communities such as Big Canoe and Bent Tree.
“Many of these residents have two homes but declare their homestead exemption elsewhere where the tax rates are higher,” he said. “This is despite the fact that they stay here the vast majority of the time.”
Georgia had 17 counties that made the Census Bureau’s 100 fastest growing counties list, including Cherokee and Dawson counties. Georgia was followed by Texas, which had 13 counties on the list, and Florida with 11.
“The more accurate count we get, the better it will be for funding and grants,” Pope said. “But we’ll just have to wait until next year about this time when the 2010 Census numbers start coming out to see how things will work out.”

A look at the present economic downturn and the obvious shortage of production jobs in this county prompts a question: Whatever happened to the Pickens County marble industry as a dynamic generator of employment here?

At one point (evident in period photographs) the Long Swamp Valley marble district lay littered under a spread of quarries, finishing plants, commercial buildings and worker houses. For a time, the industry employed whole towns of laborers: Marble Hill, Tate, Nelson.

By contrast, modern Pickens can boast but a relative handful of workers employed in the industry. To track the change, we looked at the history of marble-business here from the late 1800's to modern times.

Marble quarrying began in Pickens County before the Civil War but never boomed until the 1880's. By then, arrival of the railroad gave a much needed path to market for heavy quarry products. Rail connected to large cities, where the post-Civil-War build-up of high-rise architecture stoked an appetite for construction stone.

In Pickens County, Northern capital backed plant infrastructure. Cheap Southern labor did the work. Steel rail moved the product. And big-city demand kept the large commercial engine stroking.

Starting with the boom, a string of independent marble finishing plants lined rail-side from Marble Hill to Marietta. By 1915, the Georgia Marble Company was buying up the independents, consolidating finishing plants and quarries into one large company.

A last plant at Marietta managed to hold out as an independent until 1941. When Georgia Marble bought it too, the company owned it all.

For the most part, marble boomed nationally until the Great Depression. In 1932, near the start of that famed downturn, American production of dimension stone marble (construction and monument marble) totaled nearly 1,700,000 cubic feet––a sizable quantity but down from where it had been.

The construction marble business remained dull until 1944, near the end of World War II, when things began to pick up a bit. Rounding out the year at almost 740,000 cubic feet of dimension marble quarried, 1945 actually represented some improvement over '44.

By war's end, American production of pulverized marble calcium product stood at nearly double the quantity of marble cut for construction or monument purposes. The crushed marble figured as an ingredient in construction products like house paint and sheetrock mud. A postwar building boom in residential housing upped the demand for powdered marble.

Year 1945 saw momentum building for a surge also in construction marble production. That year the United States Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook predicted the years-long delay in construction of public buildings during the Depression and World War II could mean new boom times for marble in the strong post-war economy.

“Both depressions and wars have a detrimental effect on the construction of permanent public buildings,” the Yearbook noted. “Accordingly, very few such buildings have been erected since 1930, and the accumulated need offers a large potential market for marble for both interior and exterior work."

Predictions proved correct. By 1960, demand for dimension marble for use in public buildings pushed American output to just over 1,700,000 cubic feet, rounding close to pre-Depression levels. Around that time, workmen replaced the sandstone eastern facade of the United States Capitol with new Georgia marble. Massive marble columns, turned on lathes by artisans at Nelson, journeyed to Washington on railroad flatcars.

But the marble boom that followed World War II faded by the end of the Sixties. The 1970 Minerals Yearbook mentioned imported stone and pointed at lagging American technology in dimension stone production. "Failure to achieve the maximum degree of mechanization possible and to resolve the manpower problem may lead to the demise of the dimension stone industry," the Yearbook warned.

The following year, impact from imports was even more evident. The Minerals Yearbook for 1971 indicates President Richard Nixon realized the domestic marble industry faced serious competition from foreign suppliers. But Nixon declined to raise tariffs on imported stone.

Maybe worse, the president actually eliminated the import duty on unfinished and semifinished marble entering the country in an apparent effort to aid marble finishers at the expense of quarry men. To the quarry firms, he offered federal trade adjustment assistance: loans, loan guarantees, technical assistance, tax relief.

For quarry workers squeezed out of jobs by foreign imports, the federal government proposed cash adjustment allowances, counseling, retraining, and relocation money.

Aside from the round-house swing of foreign competition, adjustments in fashion struck the marble industry closer to home. The upstart of perpetual care cemeteries, equipped with flush-to-the-ground grave markers cast from bronze, cut the demand for monument marble. And customers who still chose stone monuments often preferred granite over marble.

"Granite holds up to weather much better than marble," Georgia government geologist, John Costello, said.

Architectural preferences changed also. "Years and years ago, if you look at historic buildings, you see that many varieties of marble were used in construction," Costello said.

Through the early 20th century, some graining in the stone was thought attractive for construction marble, he said. "Over time, the popularity of that heavy-patterned marble declined," Costello said, "and most customers wanted as white a stone as they could get."

Today the pure white Cherokee variety marble remaining at the Tate Quarry is almost rare, Costello claims. Maybe a new boom waits in the stone for some clever architect to rediscover the grandeur of marble with swirls and patterning.

A discovery was struck while researching this story: The United States marble industry experienced a boom time as recently as last decade.

From 1993 through 2005, Congress approved roughly $4.5 billion for 78 federal courthouse construction projects scattered over the country. Almost certainly as a result of that upped demand for construction marble, United States production of dimension marble climbed steadily during the same years.

In 2004, the country saw close to 1,360,000 cubic feet of marble quarried––approaching the level of 1960. The last year of the courthouse spree, 2005, saw output just over 2,850,000 cubic feet––a quantity surpassing every other year clear back to the Great Depression.

Come 2006, the year after Congressionally funded federal courthouse construction folded, American dimension marble production plummeted back to just under 640,000 cubic feet. American marble quarrying remained at about that output level for 2007, the last year for which USGS Minerals Yearbook data has yet been published on the Internet.

Yearbook data indicates Georgia quarrying at Tate has led every other American state in production of dimension stone marble for many years. Francois Darmayan says that record still stands with Vermont Quarries holding steady at second place. Darmayan is general manager over Polycor Georgia Marble’s modern quarrying operation at Tate.

Polycor produced about 120,000 cubic feet of dimension marble from Tate last year, Darmayan said.

To picture that quantity, imagine the Pickens County Courthouse (including the brick wing on back) as a solid marble mass––no air space inside, just a solid chunk. (Subtract the extra bit of height at the center top of the main building, and, by our rough calculations, the three-story courthouse occupies about 124,175 cubic feet.) Polycor’s annual output totals to a lot of marble.

Polycor operates the Tate marble quarry and a finishing plant beside it. But the labor-intensive processes that once generated a host of jobs at Tate are gone with the wind.

"The manufacturing methods have changed as far as quarrying, so they get out more now with fewer people," Polycor Structural Project Manager Mike Westbrook explained.

Gone too is most of the fine finishing work at Tate, fabrication of any marble product with shape to it, Westbrook said. Quarry blocks are still cut into slabs at Tate. Slabs are still polished inside the Tate Mill. But no carving, sculpting or art-type finish work are conducted commercially at Tate on a regular basis today.

"We still do a lot of pavers, a lot of flat work," Westbrook said. Sculptured marble (anything with a shape) is finished elsewhere. Polycor ships quarried marble to specialty shops where the shape is put on, Westbrook said. "Some are in the Northeast. A couple are in Canada," he said. Each shop majors on a single specialty, he said. One does counter tops. One does columns. One does cornice moldings.

Most of the white Georgia marble quarried at Tate today goes to mark graves of American veterans, Francois Darmayan said. "The main part of the dimension marble we quarry is for government headstones," he said.

But now most fabrication of those grave markers happens somewhere else, in Vermont or Mississippi, he said. Only at times of peak demand are any VA headstones still made at Tate, Darmayan said. The present economic downturn has not altered the demand for VA grave markers, he said. Train cars of marble blocks seen heading south through Nelson in early April were bound for headstone manufacture in Vermont, Darmayan said.

Polycor's other market, construction marble, calls mostly for slabs used in walls and floors. Because such marble pieces are applied as a building nears completion, Darmayan explained, Polycor has continued to ship orders despite the downturn, as building projects now finishing began about three years ago.

"We're the last step for construction," Darmayan explained, and most building projects begun before the recession are continuing to completion. So far, only a couple of projects in New York have called back to cancel marble orders, he said. Compared to last year, Polycor marble sales are off by about 10 to 15 percent, Darmayan said.

The severe downturn in residential construction has lowered the demand for crushed marble calcium product used in many building supplies. Huber Engineered Materials laid off six employees from its Marble Hill crushed marble plant in January. According to a press release, the lay-off amounted to a seven percent workforce reduction at the plant.

Imerys also operates a crushed marble plant at Marble Hill but effectively evaded all Progress questions, including ones about reduction of labor force. A company lawyer required all reporter questions be submitted by e-mail, then answered none of them.

Polycor aims to weather the economic crisis while maintaining the same number of employees, Francois Darmayan said. Polycor employs about 60 at Tate, he said.

Evan Howell manages the only marble finishing plant (in the old sense) still operating in Pickens County. The Blue Ridge Marble and Granite Company started up in a reopened Nelson marble plant about two years ago.

Along with private memorials, Blue Ridge also fabricates counter tops, table tops and some structural pieces for building construction, Howell said. Those last go for "government buildings, private buildings and banks," Howell said. "That part of it is what's so bad slow right now," he said.

Everything marble now fabricated at Nelson is sculpted from stone quarried at Tate, Howell said. Even with the slow-down, his workmen stay pretty busy.

"We work six days [per week] most of the time," Howell said. He aims to keep all of his 20-man work force working, Howell said. "It's slow," he said, "but we ain't laid off."

With gasoline prices sky-rocketing this summer and far-away vacations a near impossibility for some families in this time of current economic crunch, perhaps an event or a site nearer home could be arranged for a mini-vacation.

May I suggest an Appalachian traditional entertainment, both enjoyable and with fellowship and opportunities to participate. That is a Sacred Harp singing near you. I accessed some delightful Web sites recently that gave information on this uniquely American tradition. You can also find information about places not so far from where you live to attend an “all-day” singing with “dinner-on-the ground.” Or perhaps churches in your area have a singing in the ‘good ole summertime’ to which you could go.

An examination of the history of this American folk tradition allows us to see why its popularity carries into the 21st century.

Sometimes it is called “fa-sol-la” singing. Passed at first by oral tradition long before they were published in tune books, the metrical hymns and psalms of Isaac Watts and others were an important part of frontier worship as groups met first in homes and then in a church house built where some citizen set aside an acre or so of land for a meeting place.

This method of singing was taught in widely-practiced singing schools in the south, beginning in the nineteenth century. The song leader would announce a tune, known to most people, and then “line out” the words to go with that tune.

The preacher or the song leader would often be the only one in the congregation to have a song book. By repetition, the members would soon learn the words of the song. When “New Britain C.M.” was announced as the hymn tune, the singers would know that “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,” the inimitable words by John Newton (1725-1807) would be sung to the announced tune. “C.M.” stood for common meter, a metrical count of syllables in the phrases of the song being 8.6.8.6. The version of this beloved hymn we so often sing now was published in “Virginia Harmony” in 1831 and repeated in subsequent hymn books even to the present day. It was also in Jesse Mercer’s “Cluster.”

Much of this singing tradition has been attributed to the “Old Baptists,” although other denominations like Presbyterians, Mennonites and Methodists also sang the old tunes to sacred words. Why, then, were so many of them attributed to Baptists? George Pullen Jackson formerly a professor of music at Vanderbilt University in his “Story of the Sacred Harp,” states that “freedom” has always been a watchword of the Baptists. Prior to and during the Revolutionary War, Baptists worshiped freely, without centralized religious authority. They wanted no part of the established religious orders and state churches as practiced in some of the colonies. They did not want even their singing linked to what they considered governmentally controlled denominations.

Most of the Old Baptist tunes found in the early years were secular songs with religious texts. They were remembered tunes that our ancestors sang in the hills of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales and brought to America with them. These tunes had been “spiritualized” with words written to show Christian experiences. For example, the minor-key hymn, “Wondrous Love” was set to the tune of a song about Captain Kidd, pirate. Fortunately for the hymn, the tune name was given “Wondrous Love,” not “Captain Kidd.” The meter in the old folk song in a minor key carries well the words of “Wondrous Love”: “What wondrous love is this! Oh! my soul, Oh! my soul! What wondrous love is this, oh! my soul! That caused the Lord of bliss, To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul, To bear the dreadful curse for my soul!”

We don’t know who penned the words for the four-stanza hymn, “Wondrous Love,” in its irregular (12, 9, 6, 6, 12, 9) rhythm. Even modern hymnbooks list the words as being “An American Folk Hymn.” It was published in William Walker’s Southern Harmony in 1835. Benjamin Franklin White collaborated with Walker in compiling Southern Harmony, but when Walker took the manuscript to New Haven, Connecticut to be published, he did not include White’s name as co-author/compiler.

Evidently, this breached the friendship of the two musicians. Ben White packed up his family and moved from Spartanburg, S.C. to Hamilton in Harris County, Ga. There he became editor of the local newspaper, The Organ. He also began working on “The Sacred Harp” songbook. Many of the songs he published in the newspaper. In 1844 the whole collection of songs was compiled by B.F. White and Joel King and published by Collins Press, Philadelphia. Subsequent editions came out in 1859 and 1860. The hymnbook was reprinted in 1968 by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tn. White and King’s “Sacred Harp” became the official music book of the Southern Musical Convention in Upson County, Ga. (1845), the Chattahoochee Musical Convention, Coweta County (1852), and the Tallapoosea Singing Convention in Haralson County (1867) and countless other Singing Conventions as they organized in counties after the Civil War. The book was popular not only for its songs but for the “Rudiments of Music,” a 21-page manual of music instruction which was often used by singing school teachers.

Perhaps there are persons reading this column who can remember, as children and youth, accompanying your parents to the county seat town and attending an “all day singing” in the county courthouse. Whether members of your family sang or not, these all day events provided good opportunities in the summer time for fellowship and entertainment.

These well-attended singing conventions had special singers featured from the mountain areas of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Some of the singing school teachers of the 1930’s and 1940’s were the Rev. James Hood and Mr. Frank Dyer of Union County, and Mr. Everett Prince Bailey of Fannin County, Ga. and Polk County, Tn. Pickens County, Ga. had its special singers in this tradition. Groups of “Sacred Harp” musicians still meet and sing the old songs. In the last century, a group of singers from a church where one of the teachers had conducted a week or ten-day singing school might go to the courthouse to perform at the Singing Convention.

Noted names among those who still promote Sacred Harp Singing are descendants of B.F. White and the Denson Brothers, Howard and Paine.

Among the noted families of singers are McGraws, Kitchens, Cagles, Lovvorns, Parrises, Manns, Drakes and others, some in the fifth generation of those who contributed to the “Sacred Harp” back in 1844.

Mr. Hugh McGraw of Bremen, Ga. has been so influential in teaching and continuing this tradition of sacred folk singing that he has been chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts for lifetime honors. Born Feb. 20, 1931 in Centralhatchee, Georgia, Hugh McGraw had parents who enjoyed participating in the singing schools and conventions in their area of the state. But Hugh McGraw himself was a “Johnny-come-lately” to the music scene. He was 25 years of age when he began to participate. Since then, he has made up for the lost time of his youth. He has taught many singing schools and leads groups to revive the tradition of Sacred Harp. He also composes songs and sings in the “old style,” encouraging people to organize their own conventions and to participate in national festivals.

Hugh McGraw says of reviving Sacred Harp singing: “A lot of people don’t sing this old music because it’s ‘old fogey.’ You don’t know that ‘old fogey’ means a caretaker. A caretaker preserves something that’s worth preserving. And that’s what we’re trying to do in preserving this music, our national heritage.” (-from 1982, National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Fellows Honors).

I discovered in my own great grandmother’s handwriting (Nancy Collins Souther, 1829-1888, wife of John Combs Hayes Souther, 827-1891), a copy of a song they were learning at church. She had written the words April 13, 1868. I was thrilled to see the words of the song that had been “lined out” by the song leader as my great grandmother wrote them. She wrote:

“Come all ye righteous here below,

O hal-le, hal-le-lu-jah.

Let nothing prove your overthrow,

O hal-le, hal-le-lu-jah.

But call on Me both day and night,

O hal-le, hal-le-lu-jah.

And I’ll visit you with delight,

Sing glory, hal-le-lu-jah!”

She penned words to other stanzas as well. I looked in the reprint of White & King’s “Sacred Harp” for the song my great grandmother wrote out to help her memorize the words. I found the tune, “The Good Old Way” (L.M.—long meter) with the refrain, but the words given for the stanzas in the song book were not a match for what my ancestor wrote. There were many versions of the stanzas, as various people were inspired to write verses to fit tunes. I felt a deep kinship with her. The words she wrote fitted a commonly used tune she sang as she worshiped in the little New Liberty Baptist Church in sight of her cabin. She had a desire to participate more readily in the services by knowing the words to a song they enjoyed singing there. She was the mother of ten children. Maybe she gathered them all around and they had a little Souther choir at home as she taught them the words to “The Good Old Way” tune.

On July 15, 2007, the nearly 200 kin gathered in my large Dyer-Souther Heritage Association reunion had the leadership of a descendant of Nancy Collins Souther, Dan Smith, musician of North Carolina. He led us in singing “Great Grandmother’s Song” she had so diligently copied by hand. It was a wonderful way to connect to a rich tradition of the past and to celebrate our heritage.

Playing somewhere near you this summer is a Sacred Harp singing. Consider joining in. You’ll be glad you did.

"I stumbled into writing a mystery as I was writing a love story," Raymond Atkins said. He was speaking of his second novel, Sorrow Wood, during a presentation that included readings from the book and from Atkins' prize-winning first novel, The Front Porch Prophet. Yawn's Books & More in Canton hosted the event Saturday afternoon, August 15.

Sorrow Wood is a love story, Atkins told his audience, but a crime is solved before the book closes, he said. Rheba is one of Sorrow Wood's main characters, he said. She believes in reincarnation and that she and her husband have been together all through time, just as different people, Atkins explained.

"I'm not a reincarnationist," he said, "nor do I believe in it, but I do find it interesting. The idea of a man and woman who have loved each other forever is a very romantic notion, or I thought it was."

Atkins' first novel is not a romance, though one of its real strengths is his depiction of the marriage main character, A.J. Longstreet, maintains with his wife, Maggie. This first book won Atkins the award for Author of the Year for a first novel, bestowed by the Georgia Writers Association in June.

The Front Porch Prophet is the story of an old friendship between A.J. and his lifelong, rough-edged pal, Eugene Purdue, and what they both go through as Eugene goes about dying of cancer. It does not sound like a funny book, but it's laugh-out-loud in places with strong writing throughout.

Each chapter is headed with excerpts from Eugene's posthumous letters to different townsfolk (designed to stir trouble even after his demise). Purdue winds down his days at a rustic hermitage atop his own private mountain.

"If you can't tell by the names, I'll tip you off. I do write Southern fiction," Atkins said.

From The Front Porch Prophet, pages 25-27:

"A.J. entered the homestretch, the last quarter mile of his trek to Eugene's home. Just ahead was a wide place in the trail, and parked there, rusting peacefully, was The Overweight Lover. It was a 1965 Chrysler Imperial with fine Corinthian leather interior and a 440 cubic-inch motor. It sat where it had finally died and, in A.J.'s opinion, this was hallowed ground.

The car was green and wide, and it had The Overweight Lover hand-painted in Gothic script across the tops of both the front and back windshields. Eugene had purchased the Lover complete with lettering back in the days when pre-owned vehicles were simply used cars.

He made the acquisition because he needed another motor for his little hot rod, but his plans changed dramatically when the old Chrysler hit 128 mph during the trip home. Eugene had great admiration for speed in those days, and since the Lover handled better than his Dodge Charger ever had, he parked the smaller car in favor of the touring sedan.

"How long would you say this car is?" A.J. had asked Eugene upon his first glimpse those many years past. "Thirty, maybe thirty-five feet? Nice wide whitewalls, too." He was standing by the car, hands in pockets, lightly kicking at one of the tires as if he were a potential buyer.

"Don't talk about my car," Eugene had replied from under the dash. He was in the preferred position for eight-track tape-player installation, upside down with his legs hanging over the back of the front seat.

"What name would you put on this shade of green?" A.J. had continued, running his hand down the front fender. "I've seen this before somewhere." He was enjoying himself. He had been listening for some time to Eugene's derisive comments about his own humble vehicle, a 1963 Chevrolet Impala that Eugene called the Hog Farm. So A.J. had been praying for a vehicle of the Lover's pedigree to appear.

"I told you to quit talking bad about my car," Eugene said, sitting up while he plugged in a Led Zeppelin tape to try the stereo. Jimmie Page and Robert Plant sounded like they were gravely ill.

"Led Zeppelin is a little raw for an automobile of this stature," A.J. had observed, reaching into the ice chest for a beer. Eugene gave him a hard stare. Then he secured a beer of his own and began to wash the car. When he got around to the windows, A.J. noted that they could probably scrape the name off with a razor blade.

"You have got to be kidding," Eugene had said, looking at A.J. with disbelief. "The name is the best part."

What made him become a writer, Atkins answered when he finished reading.

"I had always wanted to be a writer, and I have always written some," he said. "But I haven't written seriously except the last six years."

He met his wife and married when they were both 19, Atkins said. They later put each other through college, he said, and tried to do as much for their four children. Two took to that dream. Two didn't, Atkins said. He worked 25 years as a maintenance manager in a Rome, Georgia paper mill while he wrote in his off time, Atkins recounted.

His first novel taught him writing the book was the easy part. "Getting somebody to publish it is the hard part," Atkins said. "You've got to develop a thick skin. You've gotta develop the mind of 'I'm gonna get it published, and I won't quit until I do'."

Medallion Press of St. Charles, Illinois published both of Atkins' first two novels, and he has signed with them for a third. Someone asked how Atkins linked up with Medallion Press. "I got to the M's," he said. "This was the 89th submission."

His original manuscript for Front Porch Prophet was about twice the size of the book as published, he said. "Three hundred pages is what a publisher wants," Atkins explained. Fortunately, much of what he edited from Prophet Atkins later used writing Sorrow Wood, he said.

Medallion designs the book covers, he said. Sorrow Wood's cover features an old barn. But there wasn't one in the text until Atkins wrote one in to match the cover. "I do like the cover," he smiled. "And it wasn't much trouble putting the barn in the book."

Atkins gave his listeners a touch of his rural Southern background. "I spent my young teen and teen years in Valley Head, Alabama," he said. "I was actually born on Cape Cod, but you can't tell from my accent," he quipped in easy-paced delivery. His father's military career accounted for his northern nativity, Atkins explained. "I was born up north, so I guess you could say I'm a Southerner by preference," he declared.

"I wrote my first story when I was in third grade," he said. "It was a science fiction blockbuster. It was full of ray guns and spaceships. I got a D on it," he said. His teacher was not impressed, Atkins said––maybe because his composition was supposed to have been a report on Christopher Columbus.

But was there never a teacher who saw Atkins' writing gift and fanned the flame?

"One English professor," he said. "When I just started going to college, one thought he could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

His rural high school had not taught him much about grammar or punctuation, Atkins said. His professor at Floyd Junior College in Rome taught him what he needed to know about those things, he said. In acknowledgements at the front of The Front Porch Prophet, Atkins records his debt to that instructor: "Special thanks to Ken Anderson, who took the time to teach me to write."

Atkins writes full-time through his weeks now and travels weekends promoting his novels at bookstores and literary festivals. Some writers compose in their pajamas, he’s heard, but Atkins says he can't. He dresses for work and keeps a workday schedule in front of a computer keyboard. "I have to write at a keyboard," Atkins said­­––because he can't read his scribble in longhand, he explained.

Now enjoying success as an author, Atkins indicated he still relies on the safety net of his wife's employment perks. "The key to being a writer is having a wife who's got good healthcare coverage," he observed. The two travel together as Atkins goes to readings, expecially when he's booked in a coastal city, he said.

He worked in a mill many years, Atkins said, fulfilling the role of a family provider. Now his kids are grown, and it's his time, he said.

His oldest daughter is also a writer, a poet gaining her masters degree toward teaching, he said. Atkins, too, pursues a masters degree with teaching in mind. It's writing he aims to teach.

"I told my kids it doesn't matter what you do so long as you're happy doing it," Atkins said.

Asked exactly what he meant to say in penning each of his two novels now in print, Atkins said both really speak to the same thing. He summarized that theme in a few words: "The way you live your life is as important or more important than how long you live or how much you've got."

At left, Banjo Bluesman John White with a “Why Gourd” Bob Thornburg jumbo gourd banjo. Behind him are examples of fretless Victorian era English banjos.

When most people think banjo, bluegrass comes to mind.

Restricting the instrument to this relatively modern usage misses a long, though mostly unknown and unrecorded, history originating with African slaves in the Caribbean.

Longtime Pickens musician John White, best known for his fiddle-playing in the Yeller Cats, has gone back to roots of the banjo for his first cd, Banjo Blues.

“Taking the banjo back to the pre-recording days,” White said he has developed this blues style and theory based on what makes sense with the way early banjo players used the instrument as well as how the early blues was played.

This style of blues banjo would also have fit the purpose of the early music to provide entertainment and dancing by the slaves. He notes that the African slaves “revolutionized rhythm, scales and notes everywhere they went” playing music mostly for their own entertainment.

Banjos were a prime instrument in minstrel shows, well before they became a staple of bluegrass pickers, but were almost completely replaced by the guitar when recordings started being made of original artists in the rural south.

Listening to both the banjo work and blues produced by musiciants in the 1920s-1930s shows a surprising amount of talent and advanced musicianship, according to White.

“They were amazing,” he said. “They weren’t primitive; they might have been economically depressed, but not primitive by any stretch.”

White said he began experimenting with the blues-use after he purchased a fretless banjo.

The fretless banjo suits blues playing as the early players were slaves who would have been looking for notes and scales they were familiar with from their own culture - tones that would have been difficult to reproduce on a modern fretted banjos.

For the cd, White plays much of it on a “gourd banjo” made from a large gourd sliced in half in the same style as the early slaves who were looking re-create African instruments. These banjos are available online and handmade in several places today. Some other songs on Banjo Blues are played using an early English banjo, also fretless -- again found by White online.

“The banjo has gone full-circle” White says of his playing in an earlier style and with the simple gourd design.

For the album, White plays both instrumentals that he wrote and covers of traditional blues songs such as Wake Up Mama, later made famous by an Allman Brothers cover (Statesboro Blues), and Crazy About You from Little Walter.

Along with the “Why” gourd and a Victorian banjo, White uses a rubbing gourd, a rain stick and a washtub bass, made in Pickens County by Rocky Collins.

In an odd blending, the cd is mostly played on reproductions of the earliest instruments but was recorded at White’s home directly on computer.

White is known locally as both a Pickens High teacher and as the fiddle player with the Yeller Cats since the mid 1990s. The Yeller Cats have recorded some material, but White said they were never satisfied with it and it has never been released. The Yeller Cats continue to play at public events.

A Pickens native, White started playing fiddle with some lessons in college. He learned the basic fundamentals and started “toying with Irish and Celtic music.”

From there he attended some festivals and got into “old timey” music, a style that predates bluegrass, though many casual listeners will group them together as bluegrass.

Even though Pickens and the rest of the North Georgia mountains are home to a dwindling number of true “old-timey” musicians, White said he didn’t grow up with any particular homegrown influences, listening mostly to the commercial music that everyone else did.

White said he had always enjoyed the blues and much of the music on Banjo Blues comes as a result of him “messing around” with the songs he liked on the fretless banjo.

“If you’re in the right mindset, the sounds comes out,” he said.

Although he has heard recordings of early blues musicians saying they learned certain songs from banjo-playing elders, there is little recorded music with the banjo used for the blues.

But White said, “The rhythmic possibilities of the banjo are infinite.”

At right, WIVL 88.3, a new non-profit radio station in Jasper, is operated entirely by a handicapped staff.

originally published 12/3/2009

The next time you find yourself driving around Pickens scanning your FM radio dial let the knob come to rest on 88.3 --- if you can pick up the signal you may very well be listening to history in the making.

According to The Great 88’s producer Mark Hellinger who has spent his entire adult life in broadcasting, climaxing in 1992 with an Emmy for TV news, WIVL 88.3 is possibly the only non-profit station in the US operated entirely by the disabled.

“There’s nothing else like this in the country,” Hellinger said at his studio on Church Street in Jasper, which already has over 10,000 song titles in queue for upcoming programming.

“Everyone here is physically impaired in someway and no one on this staff has any broadcasting background at all. What we are doing is giving the handicapped a voice in the community…and the experience they gain here will be something they can put on their resume in the future.”

Hellinger, who once owned local radio station WYYZ 1490 AM, says he was inspired to begin a handicapped-only station after watching his niece struggle with a severe disability. She was born with a spinal disorder, Hellinger told us, and has been through 54 major surgeries in her lifetime.

“She lives in Ohio and at one point she went into an office to answer telephones and she really loved it. She felt like she was really doing something worthwhile,” he said.

Hellinger alluded to the marginalization many handicapped people feel when he spoke about his niece and touched on the importance of bringing joy to the physically challenged.

“We have a man Roger Green who will be coming in on weekends for a few hours. He’s paralyzed from the neck down and he can’t use his hands but we are going to get him on the air for Soul Saturday.”

Not all of the 25 volunteers at WIVL are as severely handicapped as Green or Hellinger’s niece. The spectrum of disability of WIVL volunteers ranges from mild to severe but Hellinger said any disabled person is welcome and encouraged to participate.

“If you are physically challenged in anyway there are no questions asked. You have a spot here,” Hellinger said. “We will find something for you to do. This station is not about me. I’ve had my fame and glory. This is all about the staff, and in my 30 year history in broadcasting I can say this is the best staff I’ve had --- and they are all volunteer. It’s amazing.”

While The Great 88 has yet to gain licensing approval from the FCC, Hellinger and his team officially signed on Monday, November 16 at 8:00 a.m. and plan to offer live, local broadcasting from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and various hours on the weekend.

From 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. WIVL will switch to a broadcast feed out of Athens.

“We will be broadcasting something 24-hours a day…But this is such a different station it’s taking [the FCC] a while to approve us,” Hellinger said. “It usually only takes 60 days…we should have it soon…but we have permission from the owner to go on the air.”

Programming will be by and large up to the on-air personalities, “Within reason,” Hellinger said, who wants to keep the station’s music uplifting.

“WIVL is what you call a ‘broadcast.’ Most stations are ‘narrowcast’ where they have a specific kind of programming all the time. We are going to include everything from soft rock to gospel to country from the 60s, 70s and 80s, but [the DJ’s] can choose the music so you never know what you are going to hear. I just don’t want any rap or heavy metal.”

Hellinger is also looking to include a Sunday church corner, which will bring a different local pastor each week for preaching and teaching, and once a week live music and local news reading for the blind.

While Hellinger has plenty of experience in broadcasting, The Great 88 is his first go at non-commercial radio. WIVL is non-profit and Hellinger says the station will be supported by tax-deductible donations.

“We fall into the educational band on the FM dial, which is everything from 88.1 to 91.9. We are non-commercial radio so we have to be more discreet about the way we use our sponsors. For example, we would have to say something like, ‘This program was brought to you by,’ instead of having a big commercial from Ford…but people need to remember all donations are completely tax deductible. ”

The station’s tower, located on the top of the building that houses the Pickens County Progress, puts out a signal that Hellinger says reaches the majority of Pickens County.

“It gets up to Big Canoe and you can hear it really well in Bent Tree,” he said.

The uniqueness of Hellinger’s concept is, he says, already drawing some national attention. Hellinger told us NBC was keeping an eye out on the station and “told us to give them a call when they get things really rolling.”

And if the volunteers’ enthusiasm is any indicator, the ball seems to be well on its way to picking up speed.

According to figures recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Pickens County is the 81st fastest growing county in the nation, with Georgia counties appearing on the bureau’s top 100 list more than any other state.

Each year the bureau releases population estimates based on numbers from the most recent census survey. Working from census figures (in this case numbers from the 2000 Census) the bureau updates numbers, using “administrative” information such as migration estimates, utility connections, vehicle registrations and birth and death records, among other sources of information.

According to the Census Bureau, Pickens County had a population of 22,983 in 2000. The bureau now estimates the county has grown 36 percent since 2000 and currently has a population of 31,264.

“This estimate is less than what we think the actual numbers are,” said Pickens County Information Officer Norman Pope, who believes Pickens County is chronically undercounted.

“We have a lot of second homeowners in this county,” Pope said, referring to residents who own mountain homes in gated communities such as Big Canoe and Bent Tree.

“Many of these residents have two homes but declare their homestead exemption elsewhere where the tax rates are higher,” he said. “This is despite the fact that they stay here the vast majority of the time.”

Georgia had 17 counties that made the Census Bureau’s 100 fastest growing counties list, including Cherokee and Dawson counties. Georgia was followed by Texas, which had 13 counties on the list, and Florida with 11.

“The more accurate count we get, the better it will be for funding and grants,” Pope said. “But we’ll just have to wait until next year about this time when the 2010 Census numbers start coming out to see how things will work out.”

1: to pass again through a series of changes or treatments: as a: to process (as liquid body waste, glass, or cans) in order to regain material for human use b: recover 6 c: to reuse or make (a substance) available for reuse for biological activities through natural processes of biochemical degradation or modification <green plants recycling the residue of forest fires> <recycle ADP back to ATP>

2: to adapt to a new use : alter

3: to bring back: reuse <recycles a number of good anecdotes — Larry McMurtry>

4: to make ready for reuse <a plan to recycle vacant tenements>

Why should we recycle? This is a common question that I usually answer with, “Why not?”

Recycling is the process of transforming our trash into something usable. It reduces the amount of waste headed to our landfills and reduces our need to harvest new materials such as trees, oil, and metal to make our products.

Recycling has been a common practice for most of human history, with recorded advocates as far back as Plato in 400 BC. During periods when resources were scarce, archaeological studies of ancient waste dumps show less household waste (such as ash, broken tools and pottery) – implying more waste was being recycled in the absence of new material.

Did you know that you can recycle glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, electronics, aggregates and concrete, batteries, food and yard waste, printer ink cartridges, wood, paint, styrofoam, cars, clothing, furniture, tires and more! As residents of Pickens County, we have many options for reducing our waste headed for landfills. If we all do our small part and recycle, as a community, we’ll make a big difference!

• East Side Recycling and Waste Management – 9720 Cove Road - This center accepts all recyclables except for electronics.

Plus, we have many more options for recycling our waste at these facilities located throughout our county:

• Big Canoers will find a more compartmentalized trash and recycling center in the maintenance area by the North Gate. The compartments are clearly marked – two for household garbage and non-recyclable trash, one for mainstream recycling and the addition of a third bin for cardboard only.

• Bent Tree has a recycling center conveniently located near the administrative offices at the front gate. They accept glass, cardboard, plastic, metal cans, newspaper and office paper.

• Recycle your clothing, furniture, building materials and reusable household items at the Pickens Community Thrift Store. Their mission is to serve the members of our community who find themselves in need of essential goods and basic human and life-enhancing services. All revenue from the sale of merchandise that is in excess of expenses will be used in the community to support programs that help community members. Visit the Thrift Store at 110 Samaritan Drive.

• Pickens Animal Rescue operates a Rescued Furniture Store that accepts reusable household items. By giving the community a place to take their tax-deductible donations, the proceeds directly impact the health and future of our unwanted Pickens County pets and the stability of this productive and successful rescue group. The Rescued Furniture Store is located at 371 North Main Street in Jasper.

• Priest Recycling accepts all precious and non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, copper, brass and more. They are located at 216 Cornett Lane.

• Kroger accepts your used plastic shopping bags.

• Publix in Canton will take your styrofoam trays and egg cartons.

Additionally, there are many newspaper and cardboard recycling containers in church and business parking lots.

All your questions can be answered by the helpful staff at the county’s recycling facilities, you can call Keep Pickens Beautiful at 706-253-3600, and the Internet has a wealth of resources to assist you in your quest to help our planet by recycling.

If we all do our small part, we can make a huge difference. It is our responsibility to care for our environment and our natural resources to leave a healthier world for the next generation.